Battlestar Galactica: "Collaborators" Advance Review

With the exodus over, the punishment for the guilty begins.

Everyone may be back in space and onboard Galactica as Battlestar begins this week, following the intense events of "Exodus Part 2", but things are hardly back to normal. As the title infers, there's still a lot of fallout to deal with from the many months spent under the Cylon occupation on New Caprica, starting with those deemed collaborators, who aided and abetted the Cylons. The first scene makes this abundantly clear, as we see a mysterious (and mostly familiar) group aboard Galactica deal with someone they believe helped the Cylons, in an extremely harsh way.

As always on this show, nothing is simple or as black and white as it appears, and the punishments this group is dishing out don't come without a crisis of conscience for some of the members. Things get even messier when the group recruits a new member; Starbuck, who having gone through some of the most harsh and upsetting events possible the past few months, is eager to get some revenge, and falling into a very dark place in the process.

"Collaborators" is another very strong episode, that shows that while the time spent on New Caprica may be over, it's hardly forgotten, and will have long lasting repercussions for those who lived through it and for those of us watching at home. Starbuck and Anders have to deal with strife in their relationship, as her time in captivity can't help but distance them, as much as Anders tries to reach out to her, and characters like Tigh are hardly able to easily return to their old positions, given what has occurred for them.

There's also large questions to deal with, such as just who's in charge now that Baltar's time as president is very much over. Laura lost the election last season, but Tom Zarek was vice president when the Cylon occupation began, which leads to another interesting scene between the former bitter enemies turned unlikely&#Array; well, that remains to be seen.

Not surprisingly, given the central plotline, this episode is also a major one for Gaeta, who served as Baltar's assistant during the entire occupation, even as he fed information to the resistance. Gaeta is another great example of Battlestar slowly developing a periphery character, and giving him more and more to do and showing different facets to his personality as time goes on. Gaeta has a lot do deal with now that he's back on Galactica, as he's perceived as a traitor by most of the crew, who scorn and dismiss him. And as one might expect, the threat of much worse punishment hangs in the air for this man, who once held a rather notable position on the ship. Alessandro Juliani rises to the occasion this spotlight episode gives him, doing a very good job of showing the pain Gaeta feels, as those he once served proudly with turn their backs on him, whether deservedly so or not.

And what's going on with Gaeta's former boss? Well Baltar finds himself onboard a Cylon basestar, which changes his entire situation in a big new way. He's betrayed his own kind more than once, but neither he, or indeed any other human, has ever gone this far into the Cylon's territory. Not surprisingly, he's not welcomed with completely welcome (robotic) arms by the Cylons either, and seeing where this new journey takes Baltar should be a fascinating one.